Scientific societies play an important role in scientists' career development and can have an impact on scientific advancement. The current study explores scientific societies' view of and support for public engagement. Interviews with key actors of 21 US-based scientific societies suggest that societies recognize the value of public engagement…

Policy makers today rely primarily on technical data as their basis for decision making. Yet, there is a potentially underestimated value in substantive reflections of the members of the public who will be affected by a particular regulation. Viewing professional policy makers and professional commenters as a community of practice, we describe…

Democracy has been weakened in the United Kingdom with citizens increasingly frustrated at not being able to shape government decisions in any meaningful way. State actions at the local and national level are at risk of becoming even more influenced by vested private interests. This poses a major challenge to the democratic health of the country.…

Among the possible procedures and devices that can sharpen government sensitivity to the needs of citizens and provide for participation in the formulation of long-range public policy, interactive computers seem the most promising. Users could make computer-based explorations of future alternatives, and then provide policy makers with a sample of…

The emphasis in this annotated bibliography is citizen participation in education in the areas of decision making, policy development, and school governance. The focus is on the public school and school system rather than on private and parochial schools. One hundred fifty books, parts of books, and published reports are annotated, together with…

Answers some hard questions, such as: Does real community control diminish the professional? Whose fault is it when community involvement fails? (Author)

Analysis of report to be published by the Urban Coalition.

The first rule for setting up and working with an advisory is to know that their advice is needed and should be valued. An advisory ensures that advice is received from segments of the community that usually have no voice in policy making. The purpose of the advisory should be established immediately. Familiarization with holidays, vacations,…

This report advocates increased participation of parents and students in the decisionmaking process. The author argues that of all the school constituents -- parents, students, teachers, administrators, and various citizen organizations and special interest groups -- parents and students have the least influence. Thus, the political balance of…

Addresses the need for a better public understanding of science and calls on the scientific community particularly the behavioral science sector, to take an active role in meeting the need. (Author/AM)

This article provides a brief account of a pilot project designed to enhance the Black community's involvement in the legislative process through a series of community meetings. The specific needs and concerns of the community participants are outlined. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to determine attitudinal differentiations within the Mexican American community's leadership in the implementation of effective programs to incorporate Mexican Americans into the general planning process and, more specifically, into governmental planning offices. The thesis tested was that Mexican American involvement…

People may perceive little opportunity for personal participation in international affairs due to their early socialization. Based on the assumption that people will participate if they can see international links in their activities in the local community, experiments with participatory learning in foreign policymaking were undertaken in…

This paper introduces the Connecticut Community Conversations project and discusses the origins of the partnership between Public Agenda and the Graustien Memorial Fund in Connecticut. It describes Public Agenda's model of community dialogue and engagement and how it was specifically applied in the project. It then looks closely at the experience…

At Virginia Highlands Community College (VHCC), citizens advisory committees (CACs) were instrumental in the initiation of the first programs and services at the college and have continued to suggest needed additions, deletions, and modifications of offerings as the college has grown. This handbook outlines basic guidelines and procedures for…